


your story now

by wtfoctagon



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game), Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, Gen, and i just wanted to give older Muse everything that they deserved, as well as deal with weird feelings going into a new but similar fandom, just nozomi giving misaki some Spiritual advice, misakanon if u like. squint, she's the homeroom teacher for Misaki's class, suuuuuuuper late Nozomi birthday fic, while im an old coot who's been through too much lmfao, with a whole new host of tiny teenagers navigating the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 14:37:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15121556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wtfoctagon/pseuds/wtfoctagon
Summary: Well, that’s… certainly true, but how does Toujou-sensei even know that Misaki composes? Toujou-sensei leans on her desk with one elbow and grins.“I bet you’re wondering how I even know that you compose music, right?”Sometimes, Misaki isn’t entirely sure that Toujou Nozomi isn’t some omniscient mountain spirit who came down to teach at a highschool out of boredom.





	your story now

**Author's Note:**

> lmfao this is so late but i just wanted to get it up before June was over-- my own personal tribute to Nozomi n how much Love Live helped me during some of the hardest years of my life. I met my current group of amazingly talented and diverse friends through an LL writers chat and I honestly couldn't be more grateful. 
> 
> Getting into bandori has felt a lot like reliving the love live golden age n i just wanted to get this out of my system!! getting some closure on LL and all that. some of y'all are so tiny n young and i hope that you find the same good things from this fandom as I did with LL. I tried to make it deep n meaningful but it came out kinda trite n half-assed im sorry lmao

Toujou-sensei is… kind of odd. 

Well— Misaki supposes she’s always been a little bit odd. Not that ‘always’ is a particularly long time, since this is Toujou-sensei’s first year working at Hanasakigawa; but since it’s Misaki’s first year being there too, it feels like Toujou-sensei has “always” been like that. She’d think that a young twenty-something English teacher would be more… modern, professional, urban, fashionable, etc. 

And it’s not that Toujou-sensei isn’t fashionable, it’s just, well. She always wears these… weird outfits that  _ should  _ be tacky but are just unique or modern enough that it passes for some indie kind of fashion. And she talks like an old man from Kansai. Which isn’t something that Misaki would ever expect from a young professional who’s actually, legitimately, fully bilingually fluent in English. 

(“Professional” is also a bit of a stretch. Not that Toujou-sensei does anything untoward or inappropriate or anything— it’s just that, she’s the kind of teacher who’ll do things like break down crying from laughter when Kokoro proudly marches into the classroom with googly eyes taped over her eyelids on a suggestion from Hagumi—and then proceed to cancel homework check bc she needs the ten minutes to calm down.)

She’s far from incompetent, though. She’s actually really, really good at teaching. Like, her general explanations are really good anyway, but when some of the students are struggling, she goes out of her way to come up with personalized analogies and comparisons that would make sense to different individual kids and their way of thinking. She’s one of those teachers who enjoys teaching and treats it like a real art or technique, Misaki’s noticed. 

(It’s kind of hard not to notice when someone manages to get on Kokoro’s wavelength enough to get through to her.)

Being in her homeroom class is… definitely a new experience. Not a bad one, exactly, it’s just that Misaki’s used to having a more cursory relationship with her teachers. She gets okay grades, she does her work, she does the minimum amount of class participation, and she doesn’t cause trouble— she doesn’t usually get much attention from teachers beyond the default pleasantries. That’s how she likes it, honestly. 

Misaki sighs as she knocks on the door of the faculty office, hoping just a little that Toujou-sensei has already gone home. She’s ambled up as slowly as she can after tennis practice, after all, there’s hardly anyone in the building. The standing invitation to come see her sometime this week was kind of a strange one— it’s obviously not urgent enough to discuss her being in trouble, but Misaki can’t think of what else it might be. This is… probably the first time since grade school that she’s been noticed by a teacher. 

“Yup, come on in!”

Alas, no such luck. Misaki readjusts her tennis duffel before sliding the door open and stepping in, seeing Toujou-sensei sitting at her usual desk on the far side of the room as she scribbles away at something. The wide grin that Misaki gets when she looks up and spots her is… really bright.

“Okusawa-kun!” Toujou-sensei says, waving her over. “Come here, sit down, get comfy!” 

She really talks like an old man from Kansai. Misaki walks over as Toujou-sensei stacks up and puts away whatever she was working on and opens up her laptop, leaning over to pull up one of the nearby chairs without looking. 

(That’s another thing about Toujou-sensei that’s a little… weird. She’s got amazing spacial awareness. Students have straight up stopped trying to pull pranks on her because she’s perfectly dodged and caught one too many blackboard erasers without even batting an eye.)

“You wanted to see me?” Misaki says as she shrugs off her bag and takes a seat. Toujou-sensei nods, clicking something open on her laptop before turning it towards her.

“Yup,” she says cheerfully, turning in her chair to face Misaki as well. “I wanted you to take a look at this.”

It’s a poster for some sort of musical composition contest. Misaki glances between the slightly gaudy design and Toujou-sensei, raising a brow.

“What… about it?”

Toujou-sensei laughs. “What do you mean, what about it? I want you to represent our school at this.”

Misaki blinks. She what?

“I…” she frowns. “Thank you, but wouldn’t someone from one of the music clubs be better suited to this?”

She’s not even in a single music club. 

Toujou-sensei shakes her head. “We have some pretty amazing players at this school, for sure. But playing and composing are different.”

Well, that’s… certainly true, but how does Toujou-sensei even know that Misaki composes? Toujou-sensei leans on her desk with one elbow and grins. 

“I bet you’re wondering how I even know that you compose music, right?”

Sometimes, Misaki isn’t entirely sure that Toujou Nozomi isn’t some omniscient mountain spirit who came down to teach at a highschool out of boredom. 

“Your tarot cards…?” Misaki mutters under her breath— only to herself, because she’s really not into the idea of sassing a teacher, no matter how informal or friendly. It’s still an incredibly foolish thing to do, though, because nothing gets past Toujou-sensei.

“Ha! Dang it, that would have been such a good answer,” Toujou-sensei laughs, “but nah. I heard you trying out some new tunes in the music room when I stayed late for some paperwork. You’re really good, Okusawa-kun.” 

“Aha… thank you…” Misaki tries her best not to sound completely unconvinced because… well, she doesn’t want to be judgemental or anything, but Toujou-sensei isn’t a music teacher. How much would she really know about composition…?

“Now, I know what you’re thinking: I’m not even a music teacher, what would I know?” Toujou-sensei says with a smile, gesturing facetiously. “And that’s a fair point, but I’ll have you know— I used to help a friend compose songs in highschool. She’s now a classical composer well worth her salt, so I know a thing or two; and I gotta tell you, Okusawa-kun, you’ve got a real knack for it. What do you say?”

It’s a little hard to say no to the sheer cheerfulness in her grin. It kind of reminds Misaki of Kokoro’s blinding smiles, just a little bit. 

“Haha… I mean.. Thank you, but…” Misaki squirms in her seat a little. “I’m a bit busy with tennis club.” And other activities that she doesn’t want to admit to out loud. “Why don’t you ask Hanazono-san? She writes music too.”

Toujou-sensei tilts her head with a bit of a pout, crossing her arms. “I did think of that, but Otae-kun’s in a band, you know? She’s already got a place to be showcasing her stuff. I wanna give you a chance to get out there with the songs you write,” she says emphatically. 

Well. For once, being in Hello Happy works to her advantage. 

“I’m actually in a band too,” she says with a weak laugh, praying that Toujou-sensei won’t ask what kind of band it is. “That’s why I started writing music recently.”

Toujou-sensei blinks once, twice, then starts beaming brilliantly again.

“You are?” she says, and it’s like someone told her that she’s won a mall raffle or something. Why is she so happy about it? “Ah— that’s good, then!” she laughs, closing her laptop. “You had me worried there, Okusawa-kun.”

Misaki frowns. “Worried…?”

Toujou-sensei chuckles. “You’re so well-adjusted, you know? You’re on top of all your grades, and you play fairly well in the tennis club, but I’ve never been able to get a read on what you’re most passionate about.” She shakes her head with another small laugh. “Your teenage years are  _ supposed  _ to be when you’re messy and awkward about the things that you love. You’re not allowed to be this put together at fifteen years old.”

Misaki doesn’t… quite get it. But that’s not really a surprise anyway, because a lot of things that Toujou-sensei says don’t make sense.

“I’m just trying my best,” she says simply, hunching her shoulders in a kind of I-don’t-know motion. Toujou-sensei shakes her head.

“That’s the problem with the world, you know? You guys are always getting told that being so mature is so great, that you need to get your shit together as soon as possible, when really it’s the adults’ responsibility to make sure you guys can mess up without getting hurt. Messing up is super important!” she says, raising her index finger in emphasis. “You can only learn more about yourself by messing up. You’ve gotta try a bunch of things, mess up, and decide which things you like enough to keep messing up on until you get better at it. You’ve gotta mess up as much as possible, as soon as possible, because the consequences of messing up are so much worse the older you get. Messing up early, when it’s safe, is the key to happiness.”

She vigorously nods once to punctuate her statement. It’s… a little bit ridiculous, how seriously she’s treating her speech about “messing up”, but somehow… Misaki kind of gets her point. 

“Especially with girls too, ugh,” Toujou-sensei groans. “You get told all these things about how you should look and be, but lemme tell you, it’s all bullquack. Teenagers need all the food they can get, they shouldn’t be dieting!” she leans a bit closer and stares firmly. “Eat as much as you want, Okusawa-kun! A cute girl is a healthy girl!”

“Uh.” Misaki leans back, feeling a little cornered. “Yes, ma’am?”

Toujou-sensei stares for a few more minutes, unblinking, before leaning back with a smile. “But man, am I glad to hear you’re in a band!” She says, in the same tone that an old man does after taking a huge swig of cold water on a hot day. “Bonding over music makes some of the strongest friendships, you know. It’s awful good for you.”

Misaki laughs at that, because— well, she wouldn’t exactly say that being in Hello Happy has been  _ good  _ for her. She’s never been more stressed out as when she’s running around in a bear suit trying to stop three idiots from setting something on fire, or something equally as chaotic. 

(Though, it has forced her to be more social than she’s ever been since elementary school. Having people invite her to have lunch or hang out on a near-daily basis has been a… new, exhausting, and surprisingly pleasant experience.)

“I mean… I guess… It’s kind of just a pain, though,” Misaki admits quietly, rubbing the back of her neck. 

Toujou-sensei laughs too. “Probably feels like that, yeah. But you have fun though, right?”

“I—” she stops, blinking. “I guess…?”

She’s never really… thought about it like that. Being a pain in the ass and being fun seem like two mutually exclusive qualities, and yet… she can’t lie. She has fun when she’s on stage, fiddling with knobs and sliders to bring in a smooth accompaniment to Kaoru-san’s guitar or tapping buttons to beatmatch with Kanon-san’s drumming, and so on. 

She looks up at the smile on Toujou-sensei’s face and gets the feeling that all this advice is coming from first-hand experience.

“Were you in a band as well…?”

Toujou-sensei shakes her head. “Nah. Back in my day, school idols were the big thing. I was in an idol group with eight other girls,” she says with a grin. “The composer friend I was talking about earlier was also one of them, actually. You kind of remind me of her, when she was your age.” Toujou-sensei says, her tone getting a touch softer. “She was always  _ so  _ reluctant about everything, even though she loved being there with us.”

The thought of Toujou-sensei as an  _ idol,  _ of all things, is… really, really strange. Even if she were to get past the notion that Toujou-sensei was indeed a teenager once and didn’t spring out of a shrine as a fully formed wacky teacher, she doesn’t seem… the type, honestly. Not like Shirasagi-senpai or Maruyama-senpai. 

“But being in the group was real good for her. It was real good for all of us, really— she n’ I, we thought we had everything figured out, you know? Didn’t think of much else except doing our work, keeping our heads down, and doing what we were told. That year that we were together really changed everything.” 

She gets such a wistful tone in her voice, like the rustling of old trees— her smile stays bright, but there’s some tint in her teal eyes that makes Misaki feel like she’s not really looking at her anymore. 

“The thing about having friends like that— ones who really understand you, at your core, and will stand by you even if they don’t— they teach you so much more about yourself. About who you are, how you love, how you process things. They don’t make you less lonely by always being there, but by helping you realize that you’re complete and whole, all on your own. That’s why it’s so important for you to reach out, try new things, find like-minded people that might understand you.” Toujou-sensei snorts, then shakes her head. “Ah, listen to me going on like a self-help book, keeping you here after hours. Ignore me, I’m just an old coot.”

… She’s only twenty-five. 

“Well, that’s all I got for you,” she says cheerfully, pulling out a stack of papers from one of her shelves. “Unless you have something to ask me, you’re free to go!”

“I…” Misaki frowns. “What about the competition?”

“Oh, that was just to get you to flex your musical talent a little, see if you liked it. But since you’re already in a band and enjoying yourself, it’s all good. Unless you  _ want  _ to enter…?”

Toujou-sensei raises a brow, a knowing smile already starting on her face and Misaki sighs. Dammit. She doesn’t like feeling this transparent.

“Could I think about it?”

“Sure,” Toujou-sensei says with a grin and a nod. “It’s still a ways off, so take your time.” 

She gets her back, gets up, says her goodbyes and leaves— by the time she’s shutting the faculty room door as Toujou-sensei gets back to work while humming under her breath, she realizes… that’s the longest conversation she’s had with a teacher. The only one she’s really… well, not enjoyed, but found engaging, at the very least. It’s been a long time since an adult has tried to get on her level because she’s always been well-behaved enough that it wasn’t necessary, per se. 

It feels strange.

And just when she thinks it’s the end of her very odd day, while she’s gathering her things by the shoe cubbies at the front gate, she hears two unfamiliar voices arguing and coming closer down the hall.

“How the hell do you not know where the faculty office is? She’s your  _ wife.” _

“Okay, you know just as well as I do that she’s  _ weirdly  _ secretive about the randomest things.”

“Jesus christ. I’m literally dead on my feet, Eli, I just got off a twelve hour flight. Do you have to drag me around like this?”

“I  _ said  _ you should take a nap and just wait at the live house with Rin and Umi…”

“No, fuck you. I’ve been stuck in New York for a year filming that stupid movie. I’m going to see her.”

“Jeez, when did you start swearing so much?”

“Ever since I signed a contract that banned me from even saying tier one swears.”

… Who the hell are these people?

She doesn’t feel any better about it when they come into view. For a second, she almost thinks one of them is Wakamiya-san, with how tall and pale she is— but the hair is golden blonde, not platinum, and she looks to be about twenty-something. The blonde person is holding a bouquet of purple flowers and is accompanied by a… much, much shorter person that Misaki can’t really identify due to the enormous baseball cap, sunglasses, and cough mask that they’re wearing. 

Misaki’s not gonna lie. They definitely look like someone about to rob an ATM. 

Blonde turns and notices her by the cubby, and she’s— wow, she’s drop-dead gorgeous like she’d expect movie stars to be. 

“Hey there,” Blonde says, turning towards her and stopping. “Are you a student here?”

Misaki glances between her and the… criminal-looking person hiding slightly behind her. 

“Uh. Yes?”

“Great!” Blonde smiles brightly. “Could you tell us where the faculty office is? We’re a bit lost.”

Misaki looks at Criminal again. She’s, uh. She’s not sure she should be telling them…?

Blonde follows Misaki’s gaze to glance at her… friend behind her, then turns back to Misaki with a laugh. 

“I promise you can tell us, despite how suspicious my friend here looks.”

“Hey!” Criminal elbows Blonde in the side. “You think I  _ wanna  _ be dressed like this?”

Blonde rolls her eyes and ignores her with a placating smile. “We’re just looking for Toujou-sensei. Do you know her?”

“Oh. Uh, yes,” Misaki says, grimacing a bit in uncertainty. One of them looks trustworthy enough, no matter how… unnecessarily dressed the other is, and they know Toujou-sensei by name, so…

“The faculty office is on the third floor,” she says, really,  _ really  _ hoping she isn’t aiding and abetting something questionable. 

“Alright, thank you! Have a nice day!” Blonde turns, taking Criminal’s arm and pulling her towards the stairs as they continue to bicker under their breath.

“I told you that you were going overboard…”

“Well, I’m so-o-orry that I didn’t want to ruin Nozomi’s birthday by having to deal with paparazzi…” 

Misaki leans around the corner to peer at them for a few moments more as they walk away. Criminal is… not a criminal, but a celebrity, probably? There’s something about her voice and the black hair that’s spilling out of the baseball cap that’s vaguely familiar. 

It keeps bothering Misaki as she leaves the school and starts making her way to rehearsal— she feels like the answer is just on the tip of her tongue. It’s kind of funny how weirdly natural it feels to think that Toujou-sensei has a celebrity friend. 

She shuffles her feet as she waits for the lights to change at a crosswalk, glancing sideways at the billboard on the side of the bus stop a little ways down the street. Looking at the black hair cascading down the leather jacket of a very cool-looking super idol NiCo advertising a new clothing line, Misaki takes a deep, deep breath. 

No. No, that’s… that’s insane, right? There’s no way that Toujou-sensei is friends with an international superstar and two-time Grammy winner. NiCo’s had a sold-out world tour, at just twenty-five years old. Normal highschool teachers aren’t just… they aren’t just  _ friends  _ with mega-celebrities like that. 

… Then again, Toujou-sensei’s not exactly a normal highschool student. And she  _ did  _ say she was in a school idol group, just like NiCo, and they’re the same age…

(If it's true, then Maruyama-senpai's going to have a  _fit_ about walking the same floor as her hero has.)

“Mii-kun!”

“HGRK—” Misaki barely has time to finish the thought before something jumps onto her back, clamping around her neck and waist— she sways a bit as her tennis duffel gets knocked off her shoulder and plopped to the ground.

“Ah, Hagumi-chan!” A very familiar, doe-like voice comes up behind her as she tries to regain her now very top-heavy balance. “You shouldn’t jump on Misaki-chan like that…!”

_ “Guh.”  _ Misaki groans as she hooks her hands under Hagumi’s knees and hops a bit to jostle her into a higher, more stable position that doesn’t have her dangling off of Misaki’s neck in a chokehold. “It’s fine, Kanon-san,” she grumbles in resignation, turning with a crumpled smile-grimace. “Not like you’d be able to get her to stop anyway…”

(She’d like to say that she regrets ever offering piggybacks to Hagumi. But remembering the time they’d come across the Udagawa sisters horsing around after one of their joint lives, and Hagumi had wilted the way that she does— shoulders hunched, hands wringing, an uneasy smile— saying that she couldn’t really remember the last time her brother or her parents hugged her— Misaki recalls that and finds it hard to be too annoyed with Hagumi.)

“A-are you sure?” Kanon looks at her with her brows furrowed over her big, always dewy eyes. “Let me carry your bag for you at least!” 

Sweet, sweet Kanon. Misaki doesn’t know what she’d do without her. She sighs as Kanon picks up her bag and slings it over her own. “Thank you, Kanon-san…”

Kanon beams at her— Misaki barely has a second to enjoy the bright, crinkle-eyed smile before the orange menace on her back starts up her antics again.

“Come on!” Hagumi wheedles. “We’re gonna be late to practice, Mii-kun!”

“Arghk—” and exactly who’s fault is that?? “Alright, alright, don’t swing your legs like that or we’ll fall over—”

She starts walking if only just to appease Hagumi, jostling her again to get a better grip after she basically almost shook herself loose there. Kanon falls into step next to them with a giggle; Misaki feels vaguely like she’s being laughed at, but it’s Kanon so she doesn’t feel very bad about it at all. The gentle upperclassman doesn’t have a malicious bone in her body. 

“Let’s hurry, Kokron and Kaoru-kun are already at the studio!”

Misaki almost stops walking. “... Just the two of them?”

“Yeah, why?”

If there’s one thing that Misaki tries to stand by— if there’s one rule that Misaki enforces, even if she lets all their other shenanigans slide— it’s to never, ever let Kokoro and Kaoru spend too much time alone with each other. Those are the two who have never felt inhibition ever in their lives— even Hagumi starts to get uncertain when things start getting too exciting, and the other two idiots tend to tone it down if just to make Hagumi feel more comfortable. Same concept applies with Kanon. 

But just the two of them? That’s too much unbridled chaos. 

“Ah… Maybe… we should hurry…” Kanon mumbles, catching onto the potential trouble that they could find themselves in. Misaki just nods as she falls into a brisk step, hoping the Suits are in less of an enabling mood today. 

Welp. Another afternoon about to be spent babysitting her crazy friends, as usual; she supposes as good of an end to her odd day as any. 

“Oh…” Kanon pulls out her phone as her text tone goes off a few times. “They’re… they just rented ten banjos from the front desk…” 

Misaki walks faster. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> hagumi's home life makes me so sad. she triggers misaki's older sister instincts left and right and you can't change my mind!!
> 
> hey,,, if you wanna see more from me or give me a lil tip while im inbetween jobs you should check out my twitter!!! @wtfoctagon


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